Back-to-school, er, I mean, work! season

Yesterday, I had a bit of deja vu while baking coffee cake, as I realized that maybe the last time I had made it was when I had a “last gasp” baking session right before I started bootcamp.

Going back to work at the end of August, at what feels like the end of summer, already felt like “back-to-school” in the sense that it does when you go back to school when you are a kid. Realizing that I was doing something I don’t think I’ll have much time to do for a while just like I did when I went back to school last year, made it feel just that much more like back-to-school season.

Yep, that’s right, I finally found a job. After all of those crazy interviews I had, I got one based on a 15 minute phone interview. I start on Monday and I haven’t even been to the office yet. I guess the right job came along, just like I thought it would.

I had really just about given up. Not completely, but I was getting close enough to the end of my job offer guarantee, that I had simply resigned myself to collecting my tuition refund in October and signing up for a bunch more classes and plowing through them. I had figured I’d just take more classes until January and start fresh. This feels a little better.

I do feel a bit disoriented, not ever having been to the place I’ll be working, and in fact, at this point I don’t even know what time I am supposed to be there on Monday (although I have a guess) or who I’ll be reporting to (although I’m sure someone can direct me.) I don’t think I’ve ever started a new job based on so little, and I definitely have some anxiety that something will go awry at this point. It won’t feel real until after the end of my first day, I’m sure.

In the meantime, I am trying to ready myself as much as possible. Again, it feels like back-to-school. I’m not buying school supplies, but I did download some new HTML & CSS books (and I bought some fiction to read on the bus!) and I tried to re-organize all my bookmarks so that I have easier access to the ones that I think will be most relevant. I didn’t specifically shop for new clothes, per se, but I do have some things I haven’t worn yet, and re-organized my whole wardrobe in a more work appropriate outfit friendly fashion, so hopefully, getting dressed in the mornings won’t trip me up too much.

The waiting is the hardest part. I know there are a ton of things I could be doing here, but I find it hard to get motivated because my brain is busy thinking about what this new job will be like, and it’s hard to do anything but that.

Again, I feel like there is a bit of a lack of communication, but I also think that the way things are done in this industry are just different from what I am used to, and perhaps I just need to adjust. I’m sure I will in time.

Over the next few days, I’ll probably write something a bit more in-depth than I have thus far about the interview process. I feel like we talked about how to get jobs so much in school, and what the interviews would be like, but the perception I had was really quite different from my reality. I think everyone’s reality is going to be a little different, but for as much as I’ve read and been told about the interview process in general, I don’t think I’ve heard anyone detail their experiences and I feel like it would be helpful at some point to someone.